Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-21
SAN PEDRO.
The New Steamer Southern
California.
A BURNING QUESTION.
Is San Pedro the HarbOr of South
ern California, or are We q
Back Country to San Diego?

-
flesh air from the "briny," and tC
take look at the new steamer jus
arrived from England to 60 into the
coal trade between this city and Ma
naimo.
BY the kindness Of Captain Rains
the reporter is able to lay before the
readers of this journal the foil wing
account of the steamship, Southern
California, her history, voyage out
and the purpose for which she il
brought here. The Southern Califor
mia registers 1926 long tons, and has
carrying capacity of 1900 tons
on mean draft Of Is feet. She
is driven by a fine pair O
compound engines, the high pressure
engine having a diameter of 81 inche.
and the low pressure one of GA inches
The steam pressure on the boiler is sc
pounds to the square inch. The length
of stroke is "a inches and the revolu-
tions are GA to the minute. The
steamer burns ten tons of coal per dav
and on that consumption she will
steam nine knots per hour with her
full load of 1900 tons on board. A
knot is one and one-sixth miles. Her
length over all is 250 feet. beam 81
feet, depth of hold. 13la feet to the
top of the ballast tank, which is 314
feet deep.
The steamer Southern California is
owned by Mr. D. Freeman, of the
Centinela ranch and she is in com
mand of Captain Stephen James Rains
Mr.. Walter s. Maxwell has chartered
the ship for use in the coal
trade as above. She is OF
course, an iron ship built at Sunder
land. England, In 1884, by Kash,
PooldI & Co., for the Mediterranean
and Black Sea trade. She was en-
gagged for some time in the Spanish
iron ore trade at the port of Bilboa.
THE JOURNEY OUT.
The steamer sailed from Cardiff.
Wales, July 80, 1887 at 2 80 P. NJ, for
San Pedro, California, with an as
sorted cargo of railroad iron, pig iron
and coke, and 1000 tons of coal for
steam on the voyage. She passed the
Straits of Magellan between the 9TH
and 18th of September in very un-
settled weather. There was thick
haze, clearing up at intervals, several
st orms of snow and hail were encoun-
tered, and the land was covered with
snow. The cold was intense. In the
straits several canoes came out, and
the natives in them tried to board the
steamer, viii @ under weigh, that
they might barter skins for
old clothes and tobacco. These
canoes were very primitive, being
made of bark which is tied together
with rushes. The water enters in
streams through every gaping chink
and constant bailing is required to
keep the craft atloat. In the middle
of these rude boats a fire blazed,
around which the natives, men,
women and children in a state
of absolute nakedness, huddled.
After getting out of the straits fine
weather was met, which continued
throughout the remainder of the voy-
age. San Pedro was reached on Oc-
tober 18th, seventy-four days out from
Cardiff, and the ships crew were all
well.
AN UNPLEASANT DISCOVERY.
During his stay on the vessel the
reporter was listener to much con-
versation between the captain and the
owner of the vessel which will not
prove pleasant reading to Angeleflos
The matter was brought to head by
an innocent que> ton on the part of the
press probe. He asked Captain Rains
when he would return to San Pedro
and was much surprised at the bluff
outburst of feeling on the part of the
old sea dog. His response was as
sudden as it was sensational-"I hope
to heaven never" This, of course.
called for regret that the new arrival
had found our glorious climate SO lit
tie to his mind. But Mr.. Freeman
came to the rescue of the captain with
the remark that it was not the climate
but the business methods prevailing
at the harbor which 30 disgusted Cap
tain Rains. From this hint the re-
porter proceeded to draw out the own
or and commander of the ship, and
found out the following facts, Which
ara given substantially as they came
from these gentlemen: The ship ar
rived ,as stated above, on October 18th.
Yesterday was the 10Th. She had
about 500 tons of stuff aboard, exclu-
siye of her coal. For an entire week
Captain Rains has been trying to get
his goods delivered and sail for MAJ
naimo. He had not finished last night,
and he was taking out more than one
hundred tons of coal, which he meant
to discharge here.
"Why," said the Captain, "it would
be better to pitch the coal overheard
and lose it, than lose time here trying
to get it ashore"
He went on with a string of COM
plants, and from these and remarks
of Mr.. Freeman, it appears that the
principal difficulty has been in the
way of getting cars to carry the cargo
away. He took the reporter
on deck and pointed to what
was going on. "Look there"
said he. "They are making us put
coke in box car. 1t is dumped Oh
the wharf, then shoveled into the car
Look inside; there are two gangs OF
men shoveling right and left to get
the en- 's loaded. Why, We do not get
out enough in day to pay expenses.
It costs $50 to 5000 dav to lie here.
l am advising Mr.. Freeman to with
draw his ship from this trade and put
her into the lumber trade with Homo
lulu or Japan. can make money foi
him in that, uut the way they are
doing here he will lose money rs sure
as a gun. tell you l have been OF
the west coast of Africa and in Rus
sian ports along the Black sea, an6
never in my experience did
see so poor facilities for handling
q cargo as right here in this hole.
"What should there be ?" asked thu
reporter.
~ do not intend to delay you to tel
YOU what there is to do. But ther
should be some way to let us discharg